In this tutorial, I’m going to be showing you how you can add a rainbow into images using Quickshot. There are several steps to this process, but they should all be easy to follow. While this tutorial focuses on adding a rainbow into a landscape, and not how to photograph a rainbow, there are other ways you can use this same exact process. One great way to do so is to use the same rainbow tool and instead use it as a lens flare for a portrait! Think about how you can use this process alongside the vast array of different options in the Quickshot app to be as creative as you can with your images!
Anyways, let’s jump right into how you can add a rainbow into an image using Quickshot. The first step, of course, is going to be selecting an image. This is the image that I have selected for this tutorial:
Importing Your Image to Quickshot
Once you have your image on your phone, open the Quickshot app, and select the image. If the image is something you have recently taken or imported, it should be at the top of your recent files.
Here’s something great about Quickshot: you can use any images you want in the app. What I mean by this, is that you can use both images taken on your phone, or your camera. I’ve been shooting photos on my camera, transferring them over wifi to my phone, and then editing them on Quickshot. This makes it really easy to go from photo to social media in minutes!
Once you have the image open in Quickshot, it should look like this:
Using Quickshot’s Magic Tool
One of the first things I like to do when using Quickshot is to use the Magic tool. This fairy wand branded tool is basically an automatic exposure, contrast, white balance, color saturation and vibrancy, and so much more, tool. On top of that, it lets you choose the amount of work you want the tool to do.
Unlike other auto edit features, the fact that the Magic tool lets you choose the impact level of the edit is fantastic. For a more minimal image like this one, I’m going to be going rather light on this magic tool. Because one of the important aspects of Quickshot is the speed of the edits, I find myself spending as much time as possible photographing, and then editing super quickly with great results.
This is what my image looked like after the application of the Magic tool:
Global Adjustments
Now that I have used the Magic tool, I am still going to be tweaking the image slightly to fit my final vision. To make traditional global adjustments in Quickshot, simply scroll over to the Adjustments tool, and open it. In here, you can find all the commonplace adjustments that all photo editing applications need to have. Contrast, vibrance and saturation, color temperature and color tint, hue control, highlight, shadow, and exposure control, and of course, general light control.
While this is a minor piece of the toolbelt for Quickshot, it is important that these tools are strong in any application, because they are often the foundation for a good edit. Here is what my image looked like after I made the adjustments I wanted to:
Adding a Rainbow Element into your image
Now, onto the fun part! Adding in a rainbow to an image is a great way to learn the basics behind the Elements editing menu in Quickshot. Rainbows are easy to work with, rarely touch complicated surfaces, and are fast and easy to position. Additionally, rainbows almost always add a special something, be it a feeling or a structural component, to a composition.
Once you open your Elements menu, scroll to weather, and select Weather 01: Rainbow. You’ll get a big box with a rainbow on it. Just like any app, slide it, pinch to zoom, and adjust it until it fits into your composition. This is what my image looks like now:
At this point, the rainbow is a little bit too strong in color. Rainbows are hard to photographically capture, and they’re rarely so perfectly defined. To add more realism, slide down the Element slider, like this:
How to Mask an Element in Quickshot
Great, our rainbow looks really good! There’s still a problem, though… On the left-hand side, the rainbow fades into the sky, as it should. On the right-hand side, however, the rainbow is hitting the grass. Rainbows don’t ever really end on the floor like this, so how do we fix this?
It’s actually really easy! Quickshot allows you to edit the Elements on a case by case basis, by erasing portions of these Elements. Click on the little eraser to the right of the Element slider. Your image will turn red: this shows what parts of the rainbow are currently visible. Now, you can erase parts of the image.
Here is how I cleaned up my landscape so that the rainbow didn’t appear to be in front of the ground:
This might seem hard to do, especially because the Quickshot brush and eraser tools are quite large, and you might be trying to erase a relatively small selection. While in the masking tool, you can actually pinch and use two fingers to zoom and move around. This makes it a lot easier to get that crisp clean like, like I did, on the image above.
Adding a Tonal Filter
Now, one of my favorite things to do to an image at this point is to make it flow together as well as possible. While I like the current image, the colors have gotten a bit too bright and skittish-ish for my taste. To fix this, I’m going to go to the Filters tool, and apply a medium-strength sepia tone. Honestly, the options for filters are endless, so just choose the one you like and apply it if you want to!
Importantly, I’ve found that if you’re adding in elements of any kind to an image, applying even a light filter when you’re done really makes the elements work well in the photo. Before we move on, let me leave you with one last tip: remember that if you long press on the image, you can see the before and after. Looking at how you have manipulated an image can let you see what works and what doesn’t and is key to improving as a photo editor. That being said, here is the before and after for my image:
With practice, edits like these can take under a minute. Quickshot is true to its name: it’s fast. Beyond that, however, the ease of use and the level of edits you can accomplish at this speed is just incredible!
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